Perceptions
by Teh Trickster
Summary: Nakamura Aiko and and Sohma Hatsuharu end up having to work on a project together.


**Author's notes: This is my entry for the Fireplace Writing Challenge #2, as well as a companion one-shot to my story "Black Blood", which I would be working on the moment I finish this. Constructive criticism is very much appreciated. Please let me know if my OC, Nakamura Aiko, is a Mary-sue, because I really would like to flesh her out as a balanced character, as well as learn more about characterisation in general. Thank you, and have a nice day!**

** For those of you who are wondering, Sohma Hatsuharu is not an OC of mine; he actually is a character from the manga Fruits Basket.  
**

**Disclaimer: The only thing that belongs to me is the plot as well as my OC, Nakamura Aiko. The setting and Vampire Knight characters mentioned belong to Natsuri Hino, and Sohma Hatsuharu belongs to Natsuki Takaya. **

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**Perceptions **

For some reason, Nakamura Aiko was finding it hard to stay awake. Normally, she loved mathematics but for some reason, her brain had decided not to work with her. It was the new school week and one did need to get into the mood for school after a relaxing break. A smile drifted across her face as she thought of her younger brother. He was just beginning to walk now, and it really was worth it seeing him stumble towards her and bury his face in her stomach.

However, now was not the time to go into daydreams, especially since grades were concerned. She glanced over to see how her partner was doing, and she had to stifle a groan; his face was on the desk, buried in his arms, and she knew from experience that he was definitely not paying attention. She reached over and gave him a particularly violent shake. "Sohma-san! Wake up!"

He shifted slightly, then raised his head and blinked dazedly at her. "Did I miss anything?" He asked. Aiko rolled her eyes for what seemed like the thousandth time that day, and he simply shrugged and smiled sheepishly at her. If there was one thing Sohma Hatsuharu was good at doing, it was making her eyes roll to the top of her head. She was starting to be afraid that if she spent too much time with him, her eyes would permanently be at their whites. It did not help matters that Itsumi-sensei had paired her and Sohma together because maths was not Sohma's strong point. In fact, he was failing the subject, which was why Aiko could not comprehend why he dared to sleep in class.

Sighing, Aiko turned away from the spectacle and concentrated on her own work. With the amount of stupid people in the school, at least there were smart ones like her to keep the balance. At the very least, it enabled her to top the class every year, a feat that she was extremely proud off.

At that moment, the bell rang. Aiko glanced at her watch and saw that it was the last lesson of the day. Around her, she could hear the voices of students as they jumped up and began packing their things, without even having Itsumi-sensei dismissing them. Sohma was already stuffing his stationary into his pencil case, one of the rare times he actually remembered to bring it.

Needless to say, Itsumi-sensei was not pleased with that. It ended up leading to a lecture in which the class was reprimanded for being rude enough to dismiss themselves without letting the teacher dismiss them, since they were of lower rank as compared to the teacher and they ought to show the teacher some respect. It then led to the class being punished by being forced to sit in complete silence for five minutes.

Aiko glanced around and smirked; the class did deserve it after all. She could see some of the girls in the class glaring back at her, but they hardly mattered. After all, they did bring all that down on themselves for being rude in the first place. It would be nice though, if there were at least one person in the class who was similar enough to her for her to tolerate, or even be friends with. She shook her head and pulled out a novel and began reading from where she had last stopped.

Five minutes later, Itsumi-sensei stood up. "Class," she began in a more cheerful voice, "I understand that this is the first day after the weekend and that you are all tired, but this does not mean that daily disciplines can be abandoned." Her eyes definitely took on a mischievous twinkle, and half the students stiffened and looked at each other. "Anyway, before we were so rudely interrupted, I have some good news for all of you. It is time for our term project. This time, it requires you to work in pairs, and you will work with the person sitting beside you."

There were some groans at this, and a smirk grew on Itsumi-sensei's face. She was definitely enjoying this. Term projects, as the name suggested, were issued every term and students had about a week to complete them. Aiko groaned at the thought of having to work with another person, Sohma especially. She never did well in group projects, her last one ended in a quarrel that had to be resolved by a teacher. It ended up with her and her group mates barely passing the project. Sohma was going to be an even more trying experience.

Already, conversation was resuming around them and Itsumi-sensei had to slam the blackboard duster against the wall a few times before she could get everybody's attention. "Thank you. Now, for this project, you have to come up with a problem that the students in this school face, and come with up a solution for it. This is due one week from now, so I suggest that you start cracking. Any questions?"

Aiko immediately raised her hand and Itsumi-sensei gave her a slight nod. "What medium do you want us to use in order to present our findings?"

There were some snickers from the back of the class but luckily for Aiko, she did not hear them.

"In the form of a report, which I hope that some of you remember what one is supposed to look like at your age," Itsumi-sensei replied, with a hard stare at one of the girls sitting in the back row, who squirmed under the scrutiny. "You will then present your findings to the rest of the class, and hand it in when you are finished with your presentation."

"Easy enough," Aiko said to Sohma as she sat down again. Sohma, to his credit, was actually copying down the details of the project. At least it meant that the nitty-gritty details would not be lost.

"Any more questions?" Itsumi-sensei asked again. There was silence, so she continued speaking. "Right then, I will not tolerate any lateness. Anyone who does not hand in their report would automatically get a zero on the day itself and no, I am not talking about that student councilor," she added when she saw that some of the girls were giggling at Kiriyu Zero's rather unfortunate name. "I have nothing further to say, so class dismissed."

Rising, the students thanked her and started packing their things. A few remained behind to ask questions. Aiko turned to Sohma and said, "Let's go to the library for our discussion."

Sohma blinked again. "Now?" he asked. "We have a whole week to do this."

"Of course we have to start early," Aiko snapped at him. "This is due in one weeks time, the faster we get started, the more time we can spend on our project to make it as well done as possible. I don't know about you, but grades matter to me."

"Okay, okay," Sohma said quickly. His eyes darkened rather noticeably, and he had to clench his fists, but at least he managed to hold Black down. Her words grated on his nerves; it seemed that she too thought he was stupid. He really had enough of that from his own family members; he did not need outsiders telling him what he already knew. He stood up, grabbed his bag, and stalked off towards the library. Aiko glared after him, but she too followed.

Soon, they reached the library. Aiko managed to find them an unoccupied table and they both sat down and placed their bags on the floor. Aiko immediately pulled out her notebook and pencil case. "Okay, first we need to decide on the problem that we would be dealing with. Let's see…" she frowned and started tapping on her notebook with her pen.

"Why don't we just ask around?" Sohma suddenly spoke up.

He seemed back to normal again, thankfully, though his ideas were every bit as ridiculous as Aiko remembered. She stared at him. "Whatever for?" she asked. "I'm sure we can come up with something ourselves without having to resort to asking other people."

"We're not asking people for help," Sohma replied, "We're simply getting ideas from other people, and if we add it's relevance to the community in our report, it's going to bring up our grade." His eyes narrowed. "Isn't that what you want?"

For some reason, Sohma's words seemed to be grating on Aiko's nerves even though he did have a point. Yet, the way he said it, it implied that she was greedy for grades. Aiko glared at him. Everything came out; her boiling frustration at the state of the school, the state of her reputation with the rest of her classmates, it all came in a barge of words that she could hardly stop. "Well, maybe I'm the only person in this school who actually cares about good grades. My family is not as well off, so I have the additional burden of having to find a way to support myself in the future unlike the rest of you, who get to sit at home and shake legs, and I do not need to be held down by someone who does not think for himself!"

The whole aura around Sohma seemed to change into something far darker than his usual. His eyes flashed ominously, and his fists clenched so hard that she thought he was going to break his fingers. He squeezed his eyes shut for ten seconds before opening them again and grabbing his bag. "Have to go," he muttered and practically ran out of the library. For some reason, his voice sounded strained, as if he was trying to hold back something. Aiko stared at his retreating back and felt a surge of anger and guilt. Perhaps, she might have gone too far, but then, he really should keep a tighter reign on his temper, especially since they had not even gotten started on the project. Then again, maybe she should have been more careful with her words . . .

Irritated, she grabbed her things and stuffed them into her bag, before storming out of the library. If she was going to work, she might as well work in her dorm room, especially since it seemed like she was going to have to do this on her own. She was going to simply tell Itsumi-sensei that Sohma had not done his share of work and laugh in his face when he received his well-earned zero.

The next day found her sitting at her desk, running through the problems she had come up with the night before, and wondering which of them she should use. She was quite surprised when Sohma dropped a folded piece of notepaper on her desk as he dashed to his own place next to her. Once again, it seemed that Sohma had barely made it to class because a few seconds after he flung himself down in his seat, Itsumi-sensei walked into the room. The usual greetings were carried out before Itsumi-sensei began the lesson, and since Aiko preferred to pay attention during class, it was only when they were just dismissed for break that she opened the note that Sohma gave her.

Aiko was quite surprised when she read what was on the notepaper. Apparently, Sohma really had done his work the other night; on the paper, he had listed about five problems and two of them were circled. The two options were "lack of meaningful activities among youths today" as well as "lack of school spirit", both of which she could not help agreeing with. She immediately turned to Sohma and asked, "How did you get this?"

When Sohma blinked at her, she remembered exactly what had happened the day before. She had never actually forgotten what had happened, but it had slipped from her mind in her excitement of having seen work done by someone whom she knew had punctuality problems with his assignments. "Did you say something?" he asked. Aiko shivered, his voice sounded rather frosty as compared to his usual bland tone of voice.

"Where did you get this?" she finally repeated, avoiding his eyes.

"Oh, that," he replied, "From some of my friends in this school."

"Who?" Aiko persisted.

He shrugged. "The usual. My martial arts friends in this school; we had training the other day and I asked about five of them. I also asked Yuki Cross, Kiriyu Zero and Wanaka Yori as well. Two of them are student councilors, so they should know their stuff."

"Oh," Aiko replied. She racked her brains for something, anything to decrease the tension between them.

She could not help feeling embarrassed. Apparently, she had been proven wrong about Sohma, and she felt annoyed about it. Of course, her parents kept telling her that everybody made mistakes at some point or another, and that the main thing that she should do was to learn from them. Yet, she still continued to hate making mistakes. She really should keep a tighter reign on her temper next time, and perhaps, what she had said to him the day before really tore at him, otherwise he would not have reacted in such a way.

By that time, the rest of the class had disappeared for break, and only her and Sohma were left in the classroom. Sohma was leaning against the doorframe, his bag already slung on his shoulder. He seemed to be waiting for her to say something, but what unnerved her was that he was staring straight at her, as if he could see into her heart from her eyes. He was wearing a slight smirk on his face, which irked her. She knew that Sohma did not like her that way; he had already told her that he had a girlfriend, who was about two years older than him and studying in an arts school.

"What?" She snapped involuntarily.

He shrugged and looked away. "Nothing."

Aiko sighed. She knew that she had to do this, otherwise she would end up loosing probably her closest friend in this class, and no matter how much she convinced herself that she loved solitude she knew she would go crazy if she did not have a friend. It was a hard truth to swallow, but one that was completely necessary, as she now realised.

"Well," Sohma voice broke into her thoughts. "We really should leave, unless we're planning to spend the whole of break here."

"True," Aiko replied. "How about the library? Unless you prefer to get something to eat?"

"Not necessary," he answered with a slight shrug. "I'm not that hungry." It was then that she noticed that there were dark circles under his eyes and immediately, she felt concerned.

"Are you all right?" she asked him.

This time, he gave a slight smile and a shrug. "School stress, I guess."

"I see," Aiko replied, but she did not say anything else. Sohma did not seem very willing to talk about it; he seemed to be deep in thought at the moment, his brow was furrowed, and he was gazing at his own shoes.

She was quite surprised when he suddenly spoke up again. "You don't seem very popular with your classmates," he said to her.

Aiko's first reaction was to tell him coldly that it was none of his business. In fact, she was just about to do so when she stopped, remember what had happened yesterday that made him run out of the library in such a manner. Her breath caught in her throat, and she pushed her outburst down. It would not do for both of them to get angry again. Plus, he did have a point. "I know," she said quietly, when she managed to calm down, "and I can't help wondering why."

"Well," Sohma seemed at lost of words at the moment. When he finally did speak, his words were slow, and slightly hesitant. "You don't seem to be very friendly with your classmates, and sometimes, it does seem like you're looking down on us." Aiko's eyes widened in shock. She realised that what Sohma had said was quite true after all, as she remembered some of the thoughts that had gone through her head at the mention of her classmates. It was also true that she had looked down on Sohma himself, as if intellectually, he was not as strong as she was. He may not be as smart, but he certainly had other qualities that made up for it.

"I-I guess you're right," she finally stammered, and had to resist a smirk when she saw Sohma look rather shocked. He had obviously been expecting her to scream at him. How could she bring herself to? After all, Sohma was telling the truth, though of course it was a hard pill for her to swallow. She could trust Sohma, she knew that he was trying to help her, and that he certainly was one of the most helpful boys around. Sohma seemed to get along quite well with the rest of the class; he did not speak much, but when he did, they listened to him, though sometimes they did shake their heads over his tendency to say the most ridiculous things at the most inappropriate times. Still, he had a rapport with them that she herself wished for. Maybe it would do to observe Sohma as he went about doing what he normally did.

She glanced at her watch and involuntarily gave a shocked yelp. "We only have fifteen minutes until break ends! How does time manage to fly so fast without us knowing?"

"A mystery," Sohma replied rather dreamily, as if he was talking to himself, and Aiko had to smile at his statement. She grabbed his sleeve and dragged him out of the classroom.

"Let's get something to eat," she told him. "This time, I insist on you eating. You're already too thin as it is, and you cannot afford to lose any more weight."

"All right," Sohma replied with a sheepish grin. "But you will think about what I said to you just now, right?"

Aiko smiled. "I certainly will," she added in an undertone. It was already embarrassing enough to lower herself in front of other people but this time round, it did seem like it was worth it. However, damned if she was going to let anyone else other than Sohma know about it, if he did hear her in the first place.


End file.
